This time, Newsom plays it straight

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Chronicle columnists,Phil Matier and Andy Ross , stand for a photograph inside the studio on Thursday Jan. 29, 2008 in San Francisco,Calif.

Chronicle columnists,Phil Matier and Andy Ross , stand for a photograph inside the studio on Thursday Jan. 29, 2008 in San Francisco,Calif.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

This time, Newsom plays it straight

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"Like it or not," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsomand his handlers made a point of not trying to electrify any crowds after Tuesday's state Supreme Court decision upholding the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.

Instead, the mayor offered up a cooler, calmer message delivered over the course of three hours in individual interviews with a string of local, state and national reporters.

"We just feel one-on-one offered the best opportunity to get our message out," said mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard.

The sit-downs also guaranteed that there would be no repeat of Newsom's infamous, growling declaration in the City Hall rotunda last year after the court legalized same-sex marriages that gay and lesbian weddings were "gonna happen - whether you like it or not."

The crowd cheered that day, but the video clip became the cornerstone of the campaign that passed Proposition 8 - an ad that gubernatorial candidate Newsom would just as soon never see again.

This time, "the message is going to the calm, firm and resolute," said Newsom campaign manager Eric Jaye.

And well-scripted to boot - just like when Newsom first defied state law by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004.

Every time Newsom appeared back then, he opened by saying he was straight, married and Catholic - and just about every time, he managed to have an American flag behind him.

Camera call: Newsom wasn't the only star playing for the cameras Tuesday: The anti-Prop. 8 protest that started outside the state Supreme Court building on McAllister Street was pretty well-scripted, too.

Protest organizers met with San Francisco police in the days leading up to the court's decision and negotiated just how the arrests would go down.

The organizers even sent out a press release Friday announcing the plan.

The cops were to start the arrests with protesting clergy members, many of whom had to get back to their churches for afternoon services. The arrests also began at noon- just in time for the live TV shots for the noon news.

Organizers even had preprinted forms for protesters to fill out so they could get out of jail when the time came.

All aboard: Transit planners tell us a compromise has been struck whereby the new Transbay Terminal would become San Francisco's main high-speed rail station, with the existing Caltrain station site at Fourth and Townsend streets to be used for any spillover traffic as demand grows.

Michael Lang, co-creator of the original 1969 Woodstock Festival, claims exclusive control over the Woodstock trademark and has sicced the lawyers on Boots.

Lang tells us he would allow the show to go on under the name "WestFest - A Celebration of Woodstock's 40th Anniversary."

Boots, however, has dug in his heels, enlisting the help of former San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinanto fight for the right to keep the name for the Oct. 25 concert.

Game point: Don't look for San Francisco to get into a bidding war with Santa Clara to keep the 49ers here.

In a recent phone call to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Mayor Gavin Newsom made it clear that San Francisco is good for $100 million toward a new stadium - but not a dime more.

Former Niners President Carmen Policy, who has been helping guide San Francisco's efforts to build a new stadium at Candlestick-Hunters Point, said Newsom is still in the game. But he adds, "The city has been faced with a lot of priorities that are of a human emergency nature - and he has to give those his first and foremost attention."

So if the league is looking for San Francisco to jump in with a counteroffer, Policy said, "there is just nothing we can do to sweeten the pot."

The big bounce: Alleged "Craigslist robber" Damien Belltook bail-jumping to a whole new level by diving out of a third-story window at Highland Hospital in Oakland on Sunday night, in one last attempt to avoid going to jail.

The 34-year-old ex-con has become something of an urban legend in the East Bay.

Bell was the lead suspect in a string of robberies in which potential car buyers were lured by Craigslist postings to quiet streets in upscale neighborhoods, where they were robbed at gunpoint.

Then, after being arrested, Bell skipped out on his $50,000 bail.

So when he was spotted in an Oakland cafe Sunday, the cops showed up in force. Bell ran, but just couldn't beat the barbed-wire-topped fence near Highway 24.

With his hands badly cut from the wire, and his arm still wounded from what police say was a recent robbery gone wrong, Bell was taken to Highland for treatment.

When the cops undid his cuffs for an X-ray, Bell made one last break for it and jumped out the window.

He landed in the parking lot, breaking his ankle, but he still started running.

This time, however, Bell's luck bottomed out. The cops found him in a nearby yard.

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